Wandeling Press

Wandeling Press is a collaborative, women's publishing house, located in the ice and snow of Minneapolis, MN.

In the harried pace of modern life, we love to linger on a text, in a book, over a picture. Reading, as Mortimer Adler might tell us, might invoke a number of speeds: skimming, scanning, or ... savoring. We are the publishing house of the latter variety.

Our Name

Because we delight in the literary pace of a walk, we publish children's books that move at an exploratory pace. Since we do so with all the whimsy we can muster, we have borrowed our publishing house's name, wandeling, from the Dutch.

Lexically, wandeling means "walking," but we heartily embrace in it its affinity with the English word "wandering." We savor the accompanying connotations of tarrying, and dallying, and roving around. Because, however, wandeling replaces the hard r of "wandering" with the lyrical l, we like it all the more.

Our Mission

We seek to produce quality children's literature that draws readers young and old together and enriches the whole person by tickling the ear, engaging the eye, satisfying the imagination, and by expanding the soul with laughter.

Our Mission

We seek to produce quality children's literature that draws readers young and old together and enriches the whole person by tickling the ear, engaging the eye, satisfying the imagination, and by expanding the soul with laughter.

OUR BOOKS

At every level, our word and art craft seeks to enrich the reader and listener.

Our Convictions

Six principles undergird our narrative, poetic, and aesthetic method for every book.

Our Convictions

Six principles undergird our narrative, poetic, and aesthetic method for every book.

I.

Detailed, inviting visuals feed imaginations.

II.

Cadence and verse bolster language acquisition.

III.

Order habituates the soul to beauty.

IV.

Simple story forms can convey complex narratives and themes.

V.

Skillful models encourage imitation.

VI.

Reading aloud fosters community.

Reading aloud for many years was a feature of our family circle. It was never educational in intent. It was a shared delight, but it was the basis of a generous education and of the recognition that literature was something to be enjoyed, not a subject for the schools.

— Evelyn Waugh

Our team

Authoring and Illustrating

Our team

Authoring and Illustrating

Betsy Howard with husband, Zach, and daughter, Molly.

Betsy Howard, composition instructor, poet, and literary professor, and Laura Kern, illustrator and watercolor extraordinaire, have known each other for the better part of a decade. They met in college before Laura had even enrolled at Hillsdale, and after graduating with a handful of degrees in art, American studies, religion, Spanish, and English, they eventually found themselves engaged and then married to the basketball-coaching, fourth-grade teachers from side-by-side classrooms at Mars Hill Academy.

Laura Kern with husband, Dave, and son William.

Laura now lives in Cincinnati, OH, with her husband where she daily performs the twin miracles of harvesting light and turning water into color. Currently, her aesthetic gifts overflow to framing world full of so much wonder for her son and daughter.

Betsy, who has trucked up to Minneapolis, MN, to finish grad school with her husband, spends her days singing out Homeric hexameter verse with a spread of students or from the swing set with her daughters.

As they chase their little ones around, Betsy and Laura have found themselves crossing paths again, this time at the happy place where the written word meets the artistic eye. Together with an amazing team of creatives, they are collaborating on a series of watercolor-illustrated, poetic children’s books. The project begins with the release of “Woolies for the Winter” Winter 2015/2016.

They are looking forward to inviting other women to join this network of storytelling and artistic creatives as the press grows.

Deprive children of stories and you leave them unscripted, anxious stutterers in their actions as in their words.